ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY AT HILLBOROUGH JUNIOR SCHOOL
Central to raising standards in education and ensuring all pupils can fulfil their potential is an assumption so widely understood that it is insufficiently stated – pupils need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education. Missing lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind. Children with poor attendance tend to achieve less in both primary and secondary school.
The government suggests that attendance is everybody's business and expects schools and local partners to work collaboratively in partnership with families. All partners should work together to:
Expect
Aspire to high standards of attendance from all pupils and parents and build a culture where all can, and want to, be in school and ready to learn by prioritising attendance improvement across the school.
Monitor
Rigorously use attendance data to identify patterns of poor attendance (at individual and cohort level) as soon as possible so all parties can work together to resolve them before they become entrenched.
Listen and understand
When a pattern is spotted, discuss with pupils and parents to listen to and understand barriers to attendance and agree how all partners can work together to resolve them.
Facilitate support
Remove barriers in school and help pupils and parents to access the support they need to overcome the barriers outside of school. This might include an early help or whole family plan where absence is a symptom of wider issues.
Formalise support
Where absence persists and voluntary support is not working or not being engaged with, partners should work together to explain the consequences clearly and ensure support is also in place to enable families to respond. Depending on the circumstances this may include formalising support through an attendance contract or education supervision order.
Enforce
Where all other avenues have been exhausted and support is not working or not being engaged with, enforce attendance through statutory intervention: a penalty notice in line with the National Framework or prosecution to protect the pupil’s right to an education.
Working together to improve school attendance - DfE 2024
What are our expectations at Hillborough Junior School
Attendance
The law entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have. It is the legal responsibility of every parent to make sure their child receives that education either by attendance at a school or by education otherwise than at a school. Where parents decide to have their child registered at school, they have an additional legal duty to ensure their child attends that school regularly. This means their child must attend every day that the school is open, except in a small number of allowable circumstances. We believe that excellent attendance at school will give each child the best opportunity to be successful in education.
Our aim is for 100% attendance but we insist on 96% to be the benchmark of good attendance. Occasionally children feel unwell and this is to be expected. It is important to notify the school on the first day of illness to maintain accurate records. School will contact parents/carers if pupils are away from school with no reason. If contact cannot be made with parents, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised. The child should return to school as soon as they are well enough to do so.
All holidays must be taken in school holidays. We are at school for 190 days of the year, leaving 175 days for holidays and special events. Holidays are not permitted in term time and you may be fined should you decide to take a holiday in term time.
Punctuality
Classroom doors are open for children from 8:45 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. Registers will be taken at 8:55 a.m. and they will be saved at 9:05 a.m. Any child arriving after this time is recorded as late. Any child arriving after 9:20 a.m. is recorded as an unauthorised absence for the morning session. Pupils must enter via the main entrance if they are late. If a child is persistently late, you may be called in for a meeting with the Head Teacher and the Family Worker.
Why is good school attendance and punctuality important?
What do we do to promote good attendance?
Hillborough Junior is one of the schools within Luton that has consistently high attendance and we work hard to maintain this. During our weekly Achievements Assembly, the class with the highest attendance receives a certificate to display in their classroom.
We have introduced a new league and cup format to promote good attendance. The league requires each class to play against other classes twice throughout the school year (22 games). In each game, the highest attendance receives 3 points towards the class’s total, a draw would be 1 point each and a loss is 0 points. The classes then move up and down the table depending on the number of points they have. Similarly, the cup competition allows classes to compete against each other. The loser of first round matches will move to the Bowl Competition. Winners remain in the Cup Competition. Losers of the second round go into the Plate Competition. This allows each class to be motivated to winning an award at the end of the year.
Attendance of children with Special Education Needs and Disabilities
We still expect the highest levels of attendance and punctuality for children who are SEND. However, we fully appreciate that some pupils in this group are more likely to need time off for important medical appointments. The advice below is designed to support parents/carers in ensuring the best possible attendance and punctuality.
- Make the school aware of upcoming appointments.
- If appointments are for a short time, bring the child straight back to school – it is better to miss half a day than a whole day.
- Where possible try to arrange appointments outside of school time (we known this is sometimes unachievable and we will be understanding)
- Contact the school if you are having difficulties at drop of and pick up times resulting in late marks – we may be able to help with this.
How do we manage attendance and punctuality?
Our Welfare Assistant and Family Worker monitor registers for attendance and punctuality daily, contacting parents immediately when there is a concern and working with families to improve attendance. The Head Teacher checks class attendance weekly and provides a report to governors each term.
Through our monitoring we will send letters to parents to alert them to any patterns of concerning absence. It may be necessary to invite parents into school to discuss attendance issues in an attempt to explore ways to remove barriers to school attendance. Information will be sent to the Local Authority if there is sufficient unauthorised absence that would warrant a Penalty Notice to be issued. By acting early we hope to avoid any pupil falling into the persistent absence group (10%+ absence).
I am struggling to get my child to school regularly
This could be of a variety of reasons such has forgetting to do homework, being in trouble the previous day or more serious reasons such as bullying or anxiety. No matter how serious or trivial the reason, it is clearly having an impact on the child. If this is the case, contact the school as soon as possible using the following details:
01582 613331
